TY - JOUR
T1 - A supertough electro-tendon based on spider silk composites
AU - Pan, Liang
AU - Wang, Fan
AU - Cheng, Yuan
AU - Leow, Wan Ru
AU - Zhang, Yong Wei
AU - Wang, Ming
AU - Cai, Pingqiang
AU - Ji, Baohua
AU - Li, Dechang
AU - Chen, Xiaodong
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s office, Singapore, under its NRF Investigatorship (NRF2016NRF-NRF1001-21) and Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE2017-T2-2-107), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 11932017, 11772054, 11772055, and 11532009). We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) through Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME) Programmatic Grant (No. A19A1b0045) and the use of computing resources at the A*STAR Computational Resource Centre, and National Supercomputing Centre, Singapore. We also thank Ai Lin Chun for critically reading the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/3/12
Y1 - 2020/3/12
N2 - Compared to transmission systems based on shafts and gears, tendon-driven systems offer a simpler and more dexterous way to transmit actuation force in robotic hands. However, current tendon fibers have low toughness and suffer from large friction, limiting the further development of tendon-driven robotic hands. Here, we report a super tough electro-tendon based on spider silk which has a toughness of 420 MJ/m3 and conductivity of 1,077 S/cm. The electro-tendon, mechanically toughened by single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and electrically enhanced by PEDOT:PSS, can withstand more than 40,000 bending-stretching cycles without changes in conductivity. Because the electro-tendon can simultaneously transmit signals and force from the sensing and actuating systems, we use it to replace the single functional tendon in humanoid robotic hand to perform grasping functions without additional wiring and circuit components. This material is expected to pave the way for the development of robots and various applications in advanced manufacturing and engineering.
AB - Compared to transmission systems based on shafts and gears, tendon-driven systems offer a simpler and more dexterous way to transmit actuation force in robotic hands. However, current tendon fibers have low toughness and suffer from large friction, limiting the further development of tendon-driven robotic hands. Here, we report a super tough electro-tendon based on spider silk which has a toughness of 420 MJ/m3 and conductivity of 1,077 S/cm. The electro-tendon, mechanically toughened by single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and electrically enhanced by PEDOT:PSS, can withstand more than 40,000 bending-stretching cycles without changes in conductivity. Because the electro-tendon can simultaneously transmit signals and force from the sensing and actuating systems, we use it to replace the single functional tendon in humanoid robotic hand to perform grasping functions without additional wiring and circuit components. This material is expected to pave the way for the development of robots and various applications in advanced manufacturing and engineering.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081714305&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-14988-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-14988-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 32165612
AN - SCOPUS:85081714305
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 11
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 1332
ER -